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Month: February 2025

Youth-Well Project: Successful Completion of Competency-Building Training

From January 21st to January 23rd, the Youth-Well project successfully hosted a Transnational Competency-Building Training in Belgrade, Serbia. Organized by our partners at WEBIN, the event brought together youth workers from various regions to enhance their skills and share best practices in an interactive and international learning environment.

The training sessions introduced participants to key resources developed in earlier phases of the project, including the Training Package and the Youth Worker’s Manual. These materials provide valuable insights into fostering resilience, mental well-being, and active citizenship among young people, equipping youth workers with the necessary skills to effectively support and mentor the next generation. Through dynamic discussions, group exercises, and hands-on activities, attendees deepened their understanding of effective youth engagement strategies and innovative approaches in the field.

Participants also had the opportunity to collaborate on real-world case studies, applying their newly acquired knowledge to practical scenarios. This hands-on approach allowed them to test strategies, receive feedback, and refine their methods in a supportive environment, further strengthening their competencies as youth workers.

The event provided an excellent platform for collaboration, networking, and professional growth, reinforcing the commitment to empowering youth workers with the tools and knowledge needed for impactful engagement.

For more details and to access the training materials, visit our project’s eLearning platform: https://learning.youthwell.eu/

Stay tuned for more updates and future training opportunities! Visit the Youth-Well Project website here!

Choose-life Project Kicks Off in Palermo, Italy

Choose-life Project Kicks Off in Palermo, Italy

The Choose-Life Project officially launched with a kick-off meeting held on the 15th and 16th of January, 2025, in Palermo, Italy. Representatives from the consortium gathered to outline the project’s ambitious mission of addressing youth drug abuse by promoting psychosocial well-being, education, and inclusion. Focused on marginalized youth aged 14-18, the initiative aims to provide preventive strategies, empower young people, upskill youth workers, and engage policymakers in fostering supportive social welfare policies.

Tackling Youth Drug Abuse in Europe

Youth drug abuse presents significant challenges across the project’s consortium countries, including Italy, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Serbia and Belgium. These countries face a variety of social and economic factors contributing to substance dependency among vulnerable youth populations. Marginalized groups, particularly those affected by poverty, social exclusion, and limited access to education, are at the highest risk. The Choose-Life Project seeks to tackle these challenges through tailored, evidence-based strategies that address the specific needs of each region while fostering a unified approach to youth empowerment.

Key Objectives and Work Packages

During the meeting, consortium members outlined the project’s key objectives and work packages, which include:

  • Research and Context Analysis: Understanding the specific needs of each region, and discussing several objectives, general overview of work packages, expected activities and results.
  • Capacity-Building for Youth Workers: Upskilling professionals working with young people.
  • Pilot of Innovative Preventive Measures: Testing new strategies to reduce drug abuse.
  • Youth Networks and Advocacy: Engaging young people in advocating for social welfare policies.
  • Communication Campaigns: Raising awareness about the risks of substance dependency and youth health literacy.

These efforts will be supported by robust quality assurance measures (WP6), led by CARDET, which will develop tools and indicators to evaluate the project’s impact and ensure its long-term sustainability.

Delivering Tangible Results

A central aspect of the initiative is its focus on delivering tangible results. These include:

  • Toolkits for Youth Workers: Practical resources to support youth workers in their day-to-day roles.
  • Policy Recommendations for Governments: Advocacy for the development of supportive policies.
  • Pilot Programs: Engaging young people directly in all partner countries.

The piloting phase will provide a critical opportunity to test and refine intervention strategies in real-world scenarios, ensuring their effectiveness and adaptability. By the project’s conclusion, Choose-Life aims to leave a lasting legacy of improved psychosocial well-being, reduced substance dependency, and stronger support networks for marginalized youth.

Grassroots Impact: Visits to Local Organizations

As part of the kick-off meeting, participants visited two local organizations in Palermo, SOS Ballarò and Porco Rosso, that exemplify grassroots efforts to promote social inclusion and empower vulnerable communities. These visits offered valuable insights into the challenges faced by marginalized youth and reinforced the importance of community-based solutions.

A Unified Approach for a Brighter Future

The Choose-Life Project, with its multi-faceted approach and commitment to collaboration, sets a strong foundation for addressing one of Europe’s most pressing social issues and creating a brighter, more inclusive future for young people.

Learn more about the Choose-Life Project by visiting the project’s website here.

Choose-life: Implementing a Drug-(ab)use Prevention Program & Shaping Youth Policies with Disadvantaged Young People for Psychosocial Well-being Promotion

The rise in social challenges, particularly affecting vulnerable youth, highlights a gap in social policy implementation, especially in providing supportive services and educational opportunities outside traditional settings. Drug abuse remains high across the EU, it prompts a crucial consideration regarding whether to continue criminalizing and further marginalizing young people engaged in such risky behaviours, or to first seek understanding of the underlying reasons. The Choose-life project aims to conduct a drug-ab(use) prevention program though a biopsychosocial lens & advocate for inclusive social policies for/with disadvantaged youth, while empowering youth workers, building better life chances and encouraging mindful choices.

The development of the Choose-life toolkit will include healthy leisure practices for young individuals with fewer opportunities. At the same time, youth workers social workers and educators will also be involved and trained through the Choose-life Curriculum and Manual. Young participants will have the opportunity to join capacity-building activities, trainings, job shadowing opportunities and to be part of the local Youth Choose councils in Italy, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Serbia and Belgium. People aged 13-18 years old will have the opportunity to be part of an International Youth-camp in Poland. 

Primacenters – Local Employment Eenters to Support Migrants’ Socio-economic Integration in the Primary Sector

Primacenters’ goal is to promote multistakeholder efforts for the effective socio -economic integration of migrants, both women and men, in the primary sector, by developing and piloting tailored and effective support services and mechanisms in the field. It builds on identified needs and gaps and engages a diversified group of organizations in a collective effort to support migrants’ effective integration and decent working conditions in the primary sector by working with both the migrants and the employers. Its strategy is branched in 5 strands of interventions:

1) Networking & knowledge gathering to mobilize key stakeholders, create local networks and consolidated knowledge in the field,
2) Development of focused employment support mechanisms & tools to provide focused support and upgrade current practices,
3) Capacity building to increase key stakeholders’ ability to intervene in the field and apply the developed mechanisms,
4) Primacenters’ establishment and piloting to put the developed mechanisms in practice, provide “job and offer” mapping, matching and reference services, informative, support, training and referral services, community-based activities and control mechanisms for employers and migrants and assess their impact,
5) Advocacy & awareness raising to contribute to improvements in the policy frameworks, seek for mechanisms’ official adoption and raise awareness of employers, migrants and local communities on key issues around the topic.

Download e-Leaflet here (EN)

CARDET Supports Green School Network Tree-Planting Initiative in Cyprus

In a significant step towards promoting environmental awareness and sustainability, students from Agios Antonios Lyceum participated in a tree-planting event at D Primary School in Limassol on January 31st, 2025. This initiative, part of the Green School Network, led by Global Education and the North-South Centre, aims to engage youth with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Approximately 20 enthusiastic students from Agios Antonios Lyceum planted around 15 trees in the school yard, using digging and planting tools provided by their school. The event was part of a broader campaign that included similar tree-planting activities across high schools in Cyprus, Greece, Syria, and Tunisia. The overarching goal is to educate students on environmental preservation and raise awareness of the importance of the SDGs.

Before planting, students received an introductory session on SDGs 4 (Quality Education), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and 13 (Climate Action), along with hands-on guidance on proper tree-planting techniques. Following the event, an online meeting was held with international collaborators, allowing students to share their experiences and best practices with their peers from other countries.

In Cyprus, the initiative was led by CARDET, highlighting the Centre’s commitment to fostering environmental consciousness among the younger generation. This tree-planting event not only enhanced the school’s greenery but also instilled a sense of responsibility in students, empowering them to contribute actively to a sustainable future.